Where have all the leaders gone?

Great Leader seems always to be first defined as what we don’t have at the moment. Descriptions include decisiveness, courage and a fervent wish to serve the definer's particular ethnic or economic group. And because everyone wants someone who believes in the same truth they believe, getting at what constitutes true leadership requires some study. I got caught up in this endless circle recently with a couple of friends. Reaching no consensus with them, I decided to do a reality check with Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, one time Roman Emperor.

“Begin the morning by saying to yourself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial,” Marcus Aurelius said, getting quickly to the point. “All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil." "Yes sir," I said, wanting to steer the conversation closer to the subject, "but as a leader how do you hold your temper and exercise rational judgment when confronted with such types?" He paused. Finally he said, “I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity . . . ." he paused again and shook his head as if amazed by his own words, then continued, "for we are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away.”

Nodding my thanks I slipped away to a room without CNN, NPR or Fox and pondered. Though struck by his lack of cynicism, I was most surprised by both the absence of arrogance and his very visible humility.

It’s a different world today, my friends explain, giving me the look that wonders if I just got off the bus. Different, yes, but how? Marcus Aurelius was emperor of Rome when Rome ruled the known world. That’s a lot to look after. Bigger than Pakistan, meaner than Iraq. Other than our substantial technological advances the world he dealt with was a lot like our world today. Threats abounded. Fundamental economic and social changes were in the making. Character mattered. Courage mattered. Flexibility mattered. Go back only a hundred years when Teddy Roosevelt talked about talking softly but carrying a big stick. We can argue about TR’s missing humility but not about his confidence, values and judgment.

Where are the leaders today who possess the character traits history has always demanded of its best? The mistake will be settling for someone because they’re an improvement over what we have now. That’s not good enough. The bar is set so low we need a quantum jump in quality. If we’re very lucky in the next few months, we’ll begin to sense some potential greatness lurking in one of the American political parties. Maybe lucky is the wrong word. We are a nation governed by its people, after all. Maybe we need to make our own luck. (Special thanks to Marcus Aurelius for his meditations.)